Topics Covered:
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC)
What to study?
For Prelims: About NHSRC.
For Mains: Priority Medical Devices and Health technology- need, significance.
Context: Designation of National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Priority Medical Devices and Health Technology Policy.
Why do we need such collaborations?
Such global collaborations in the area of health technology will ensure that scientific and technological advances, research and development as well as innovative technologies play a substantial supportive role in healthcare and enable us to reach the public health goals and achieve universal health coverage.
About NHSRC:
Set up under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to serve as an apex body for technical assistance.
Established in 2006.
Mandate is to assist in policy and strategy development in the provision and mobilization of technical assistance to the states and in capacity building for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at the centre and in the states.
Composition:
- It has a 23 member Governing Body, chaired by the Secretary, MoHFW, Government of India with the Mission Director, NRHM as the Vice Chairperson of the GB and the Chairperson of its Executive Committee.
- Of the 23 members, 14 are ex-officio senior health administrators, including four from the states. Nine are public health experts, from academics and Management Experts.
- The Executive Director, NHSRC is the Member Secretary of both the Governing body and the Executive Committee.
The NHSRC currently consists of seven divisions – Community Processes, Healthcare Financing, Healthcare Technology, Human Resources for Health, Public Health Administration, Public Health Planning, Quality Improvement in Healthcare.
Priority medical devices project:
Launched by WHO in 2007 in collaboration with the Government of the Netherlands.
Aims:
- To determine whether medical devices currently on the market were meeting the needs of health care providers and end-users throughout the world and if not, to propose research to identify—and action to remedy—inadequacies or shortcomings.
- To bring medical devices to the attention of policy makers and to help guide both industry and government on public health spending.
What is a health technology?
It is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives.
Sources: pib.
